$16 Trillion Debt –Blame Massachusetts

            Of the ten congress-critters of the  Massachusetts contingent, eight have been in office from 12 to 38 years!  These are the ones we’re referring to when we say “the worst of a bad lot.”  Not that the other two haven’t done their share to increase spending for as long as they’ve been there –they have—but it is our firm belief that if we could retire some of them through mandatory term limits more responsible candidates would run. Even in Massachusetts.

Notice –and this is key to the failure of Congress—almost all of our posters have had no private sector experience. Yet, they make the laws that regulate the productive sector of our economy. Further, of this group all but Lynch and the other two newer Reps, Tsongas (3^rd term) and Keating (1^st term), are listed as members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. The CPC is currently co-chaired by Muslim radical Congressman Keith Ellison. The CPC is the brainchild of Bernie Sanders, now the officially Socialist U.S Senator, from Vermont, who caucuses with the Democrats. According to DiscoverTheNetworks, the CPC was formed with the help of the Democratic Socialists of America. It has maintained an alliance with the CPC ever since. In addition, the CPC has been warmly endorsed by the Communist Party USA as its “allies in Congress.” This socialist organization inside the House of Representatives has about 78 members – all of them Democrats. This is the group that Rep. Allen West recently said were communists. West's spokesman refers to the Communist Party's own website and states that, "The Communist Party has publicly referred to the Progressive Caucus as its allies. The Progressive Caucus speaks for itself. These individuals certainly aren't proponents of free markets or individual economic freedom." Guess what? The political agenda of the CPC is nearly identical to that of President Barack Obama.

 

That they are not proponents of the free market is an understatement. The Club for Growth rates CPC members at the very bottom of their ratings scale –our poster “children” are all in single digits with Keating the lowest at 2%. See details at www.clubforgrowth.org

The information which follows is based on Wikipedia reports and we let its selection of the liberal ADA and the conservative ACU represent each side of the political scale. All are ADA favorites.

 Longest tenured is 19-term Ed Markey and his record is so egregious we’ve already done a poster on him  http://tinyurl.com/cohqu22

Barney Frank has arguably done more damage to our economy in his 16 terms than any other representative –he was our easy very first choice as “the worst of a bad lot.” See http://tinyurl.com/d4yqs54 and http://tinyurl.com/bobb26g


Richard Neal received a master's degree from the University of Hartford and then became an assistant to the mayor of Springfield. He served as president of the Springfield City Council from 1979 to 1983 while teaching high school history courses and lecturing at local colleges. He served as mayor of Springfield from 1983 to 1989. With his political influence and a head start on contributions, he was nearly uncontested when he ran for election to the House of Representatives in 1988 succeeding the 18-term incumbent. He was given a 100 percent "Liberal Quotient" by Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) for his 2008 voting record, and the organization named him one of the year's "ADA Heroes.” He was given a lowly 8.19 percent "Lifetime Rating" by the American Conservative Union (ACU) based on his votes from 1989 to 2009. In the past he voted with the Democrat party leadership 95% of the time, but recently he's voted with them 99% of the time.  

John W. Olver  was a chemistry professor and served in both chambers of the Massachusetts General Court: he earned a PHD in chemistry from MIT and later taught at the University of Massachusetts for eight years. In 1968 he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and was elected to the Massachusetts Senate in 1972.  Olver ran in a 1991 special election to succeed deceased 17-term incumbent Congressman Silvio Conte. He has since become a member of the House Committee on Appropriations and the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Olver is retiring this year at age 76 after 22 years in congress. He has enjoyed consistently high rankings from the progressive lobbying group Americans for Democratic Action, and consistently low rankings from its conservative counterpart the American Conservative Union.

James Patrick "Jim" McGovern is in his 8^th term in congress. After graduating from Worcester Academy he moved to Washington, D.C. and attended American University where he received a Bachelor of Arts in history in 1981 and a Masters of Public Administration in 1984. While in college he worked as a congressional aide to Senator George McGovern (no relation), a two-time presidential candidate he campaigned for. From 1981 to 1996 he was a senior staff member for Representative Joe Moakley. He was appointed by Moakley in 1990 to lead a House task force investigating the 1989 killing of six Jesuit priests and two women who were aiding the communists in El Salvador by the Salvadoran army. He later advocated cutting off U.S. funding for the U.S. Army School of the Americas, where several of the military members had been trained.  He was elected to congress in 1996 and joined the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He has been ranked as one of the most liberal members of Congress.

John F. Tierney is in his 8^th term in congress. He sits on the Education and Labor Committee; his priorities include green energy and increased college access. He has co-authored legislation including the Green Jobs Act of 2007 and College Affordability and Accountability Act of 2008. Tierney graduated Suffolk University Law School with a J.D. in 1976, and worked as a solo practitioner until 1981 when he became a partner at Tierney, Kalis, & Lucas. He remained at the firm until taking office in 1997. Tierney served on the Salem Chamber of Commerce from 1976 to 1997, becoming the organization's president in 1995. Described as "an unwavering liberal" by CQ's Politics in America, he has consistently high approval ratings from Democratic and liberal interest groups such as Americans for Democratic Action, and low approval ratings from conservative groups such as the American Conservative Union. His votes have been closely aligned with the other nine Democratic representatives from his state.

Michael Capuano is in his 7^th term in the district which was once represented by John F. Kennedy and Tip O'Neill. Prior to joining Congress, Capuano was mayor and alderman of Somerville, Massachusetts. After graduating from Dartmouth College and Boston College Law School he worked as legal counsel for the Massachusetts General Court. Capuano replaced Joseph Kennedy II as U.S. Representative in 1998 and since has won reelection six times with no Republican opposition. In Congress he is a staunch liberal and member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. His focuses have included international human rights, transportation, and financial services. He has been given high ratings by a variety of interest groups such as Planned Parenthood, the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, and Environment America. However, he has been rated poorly from the National Taxpayers Union and the Sportsmen and Animal Owner's Voting Alliance.

 

Stephen F. Lynch is the son of an ironworker who went into the trade after high school and became the union's youngest president at age 30 while attending the Wentworth Institute of Technology. He received his J.D. from Boston College Law School in 1991. For several years he worked as a lawyer, primarily representing housing project residents and labor unions. He was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1994 and to the Massachusetts Senate in 1995. Then he won a special election to represent the 9th district in the United States House of Representatives in 2001, and has been re-elected ever since. Lynch has a history of drugs and alcohol addiction, assault charges, defaulting on student loans and tax delinquencies but these apparently don't matter in Democrat politics.  On social issues, Lynch is considerably different than his Mass. colleagues being considered a  moderate Democrat.  He opposes abortion and has been attacked by the pro-choice group NARAL. He was the only Rep. from new England to vote against ObamaCare. However, he has sided with Democratic leaders on gay rights issues, opposing a Federal Marriage Amendment and supporting granting medical benefits to domestic partners of federal employees.

Now, obviously, Massachusetts is not the only state to blame for the gigantic generational theft that these $trillion budget deficits are implementing. New York, California and others have their share of Big Spenders but the Mass. contingent in the House continues to be 100% in favor of voting the USA into oblivion –sort of like Greece.  You can help get term limits on congress passed by signing the petition at www.termlimits.org